I have an iOS app that uses the Google Docs List API to access and download spreadsheet data. I've done a basic test with upgrading my Google Docs account to Google Drive, and everything still seems to be working okay.
Based on the answer for this question Google Document List API and Google Drive SDK it looks like things will continue to work for awhile.
Are there any steps that mobile devs should be taking now to move to the new API? My main concern is that most of the developer docs so far are related to web apps and not mobile apps so requirements like registering for the chrome web store don't seem to fit. For example:
"Warning: Apps will not have any API access to files unless the app has been installed in Chrome Web Store. To test an app during development, you must first create a listing and install it."
Any guidance or suggestions would be appreciated.
Check this answer for the rationale behind the Chrome Web Store installation: https://stackoverflow.com/a/10476737/186674
Also, we are considering removing the installation requirement for the development and testing phase, we should have some updates soon.
iOS apps using the Documents List API should now update to using the Google Drive API and the newer Google APIs Client Library for Objective-C.
The new API and library are quite a bit easier to use and more efficient than are the older GData alternatives.
Related
I am new to flutter and am trying to figure out if there is a way in flutter to write a file to iCloud (iOS) or google drive (Android). There seem to be APIs to do this in Swift/Android native dev, but I can't find anything in a flutter.
I essentially want my app to write on a text file in iCloud so that another install of the same app on a different phone by the same user can access that file. I'm trying to do this without my own cloud setup (no firebase etc, since it's so simple and small), so I thought iCloud/gDrive would be perfect.
The icloud_storage package does upload and download with iCloud.
The googleapis package provides rudimentary support for the Drive API. You'd want to use the google_sign_in for authentication as shown here.
I looked into it a while back but didn't continue due to how young it looked.
I've got no experience with iCloud so I can't really help you there, but I think you'd need to write your own platform plugin or use an HTTP API, if one exists.
I know that I'm late to the party but there is this module
https://pub.dev/packages/file_picker
I haven't used it myself but they seem to support iCloud
Marketing specialists keep instructing my client to setup the analytics so that it can track where the user is being referred from so that we can optimize the advertising campaigns.
When I ask them how to setup the tracking correctly they send me to a link for the native Android & iOS google analytics libraries and provide the settings. I respond in kind stating that our app is not built using the native SDK's it is built using the Ionic Framework. They then have no response for this.
I have Google Analytics implemented as well as Facebook analytics. Both systems are actively tracking data. But apparently it is still not tracking the source of which advertising campaign the user originated from and / or installed the app from.
I've tried to find an example of this somewhere and talked to numerous people but from what I can tell it is not possible using the Ionic Framework.
Can anyone provide some insight into this? If this is not possible it seems like a rather large issue with the Ionic Platform that should be made more visible.
Thank you!
I've spent the day googling all the leads on developing iphone apps on Windows and apart from buying a mac the most suitable route seems to be Phonegap. I cannot find out whether Phonegap gives access to all the native functionality. For example I want to access and manipulate the address book contents. I also want to be able to send text messages programatically and intercept and examine incoming text messages. It would be helpful if someone could confirm whether this can be done with Phonegap.
My understanding is that Phonegap is based on webapps but I am assuming that an app developed with it can run offline for operations that dont require internet access.
Even using Phonegap you will still need access to a mac to actually build your iOS application. This is a restriction that Apple has in place, and to my knowledge there is no way around it.
Phonegap uses a UIWebView to display your application built using HTML, CSS, Javascript etc, but this does not mean that an Internet connection is required for the app to run (so offline apps are definitely possible).
With regards to Phonegap's functionality, details of the Phonegap API can be found on their website. Specific to your needs, I believe phonegap provides access to the device's address book through the contacts API:
http://docs.phonegap.com/en/2.3.0/cordova_contacts_contacts.md.html#Contacts
I don't think Phonegap provides the ability to send SMS messages itself, but many people have developed extensions to add extra functionality to their applications through plugins. The majority of Phonegap iOS plugins can found at the following GitHub repo. The plugin I think you require is the SMSComposer:
https://github.com/phonegap/phonegap-plugins/tree/master/iOS/SMSComposer
Three questions for iPhone developers using Google Analytics within their apps for tracking use of their apps:
Will using Google Analytics cause us to be in breach of the terms and conditions of the Apple SDK 4 for developers?
If the answer to #1 is YES, then what are we -- as iPhone developers -- allowed to use to track usage of our apps?
Has anyone who is using the iPhone SDK 4 built their apps that included the Google Analytics library and found it not to work? I'm being told by my developer that it doesn't work when you build with a Base SDK set to iPhone Device 4.0 and and an iPhone OS Deployment Target set to iPhone OS 3.0.
Thanks in advance!
Answers to your questions:
Yes, with the current API and data collection it looks like it is not compliant with the terms of the SDK. I am using both Flurry and Google in my apps because they offer different feature sets that I need. While Flurry has been very vocal that they are working with Apple to resolve the terms of the SDK, Google hasn't said a peep. So, I'm nervous about using Google but not Flurry, because I think Flurry will change their data gathering if Apple presses hard enough. In any event, I have made sure that I can rip out either analytics service quickly if Apple rejects my app.
My understanding is that it's fine to collect your own device data, as long as you don't report it to others. You especially don't want to share any data that would hint at new devices. That's what got Flurry in trouble. Just remember that you are under NDA with Apple, so anything not publicly announced is between you and Apple. There are also rules about what you do with Device IDs, so make sure you understand those as well.
I am using Google analytics on iOS 4, with deployment target set to 3.0. While I no longer have a device to test against 3.0, it is deployed on the AppStore and seems to be working. (No crash reports)
Louie, I encourage you to take a look at Localytics, our app analytics service. Our service is real-time, we don't sell data to third parties and we release the source code to our libraries.
We also have an updated library that works better with the multitasking or fast-user switching in iOS 4: http://www.localytics.com/blog/
Check out www.flurry.com - they have an awesome service!
They allow you to add "events" so you know not only how many times the apps been downloaded, opened, removed... but you know what buttons and areas they are navigating to once the app is open.
If your app uses core location, you can even see where the users are on a map. Very cool!
Good luck my friend!
Do you think that if I'll build my own custom analytic tool (Flurry, Pinchmedia) and I'll host that on the same server where I have my data source for the application, will Apple consider this as a thirdparty analytic tool or not? ... Problem is that Flurry and Pinch are being banned from Appstore by the newest T&C ... than I thought that I'll build an open source library that will allow anyone to have their own analytic installed on their server ...
Thanks,
Ondrej
(Full disclosure: I work for Localytics)
What you describe would seem to comply with Apple's new terms. It's what I call 1st-party collection of device data. Or Apple could approve your use 3rd-party analytics, which is more likely if your analytics service isn't using those data to serve ads or selling data to someone else.
But why build it yourself? Localytics announced its Enterprise analytics service last week, which includes 1st-party data collection: http://www.localytics.com/blog. Localytics client libraries for iPhone (and Android and BlackBerry) are already open source.